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Thread: The Caricel Story

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    Default The Caricel Story

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    Quote Originally Posted by GPRS Internet View Post
    ..............
    Yep. Saw this. It's.........funny? It shows how we are out here.
    Knowing the solution doesn't mean knowing the method. Yet answering correctly and regurgitation are considered "learning" and "knowledge".

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    Quote Originally Posted by khat17 View Post
    Yep. Saw this. It's.........funny? It shows how we are out here.
    Nothing (in my estimation) about that company is legitimate. As far as I see it, it may very well be related to AML/CFT efforts given the Adverse Traces being mentioned.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Brandysull View Post
    Nothing (in my estimation) about that company is legitimate. As far as I see it, it may very well be related to AML/CFT efforts given the Adverse Traces being mentioned.
    It still shows how corporate garbage happens. Let me elaborate a bit.

    While I don't recall Caricel bringing or causing anything quite "revolutionary" - the lack of competition when things become complacent is an issue.

    When it was just JTC/TOJ/CWJ we had drastic changes that milked the people. Back in the day calls within a parish were free. We moved from that to calls being free on network, to now calls no longer are free.

    We moved from paying for outgoing AND INCOMING calls to only paying for outgoing.

    We ended up with 3G and more. And funny story on that. I personally know someone that was in a meeting with CWJ when Digicel was coming and the statement was "Jamaica isn't ready for 3G". This was a simply "bolt on" upgrade to the cell sites and CWJ didn't want to spend the money.

    Fast forward to now - in order to literally kill the competition - FLOW (CWJ) has dropped costs to what they call "bare minimum" and they're still making profits.

    FACT: Regardless of the initial reasons, all (maybe most? 99.99% maybe?) companies only focus on the bottom line. How to make money. FLOW would not be operating at the lowered costs if they weren't profitable.

    The thing they're doing now and saying: "Oh, the parent company wrote of xxx billion dollar debt, so we can now offer services at lower rates" is garbage. Networks are upgraded and that's the largest expense. Once the upgrades are done to where things are now, maybe 80% of traffic is DATA. Your voice is going over data. There is then only maintenance cost and replacement/repair cost to consider. FLOW is making a KILLING off the Jamaican people.

    Now - let's flip the switch. Digicel came and did GREAT stuff! They added competition and caused change. And then - inevitably - they became a FLOW. Who has seen the whole "call tax" popup that you get? I made a call to someone and they didn't answer. Cut off the call right as the voicemail came up. Popup said I spent 0 seconds on the call but had to pay $0.05 for GCT. Well - phone tax of 25% which I thing is STCT or something like that. But really? And when you pay for an "unlimited" plan with them, their "FUP" is rather unfair. NEVER had issues with calls on FLOW.

    So yes. Additional companies bring competition and push change. What we have now is a duopoly and the general public is absolutely content with it.

    Even if the back-end of Caricel is laundered money, the fact that we're dropped back into the duopoly is disheartening. The potential of having another network that would have pushed competition, lowered prices and given people options - that's what is missing. Not condoning money laundering - just lamenting that we're back under "pressa".

    http://www.loopjamaica.com/content/u...ricels-licence
    Knowing the solution doesn't mean knowing the method. Yet answering correctly and regurgitation are considered "learning" and "knowledge".

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    Quote Originally Posted by khat17 View Post
    It still shows how corporate garbage happens. Let me elaborate a bit.

    While I don't recall Caricel bringing or causing anything quite "revolutionary" - the lack of competition when things become complacent is an issue.

    When it was just JTC/TOJ/CWJ we had drastic changes that milked the people. Back in the day calls within a parish were free. We moved from that to calls being free on network, to now calls no longer are free.

    We moved from paying for outgoing AND INCOMING calls to only paying for outgoing.

    We ended up with 3G and more. And funny story on that. I personally know someone that was in a meeting with CWJ when Digicel was coming and the statement was "Jamaica isn't ready for 3G". This was a simply "bolt on" upgrade to the cell sites and CWJ didn't want to spend the money.

    Fast forward to now - in order to literally kill the competition - FLOW (CWJ) has dropped costs to what they call "bare minimum" and they're still making profits.

    FACT: Regardless of the initial reasons, all (maybe most? 99.99% maybe?) companies only focus on the bottom line. How to make money. FLOW would not be operating at the lowered costs if they weren't profitable.

    The thing they're doing now and saying: "Oh, the parent company wrote of xxx billion dollar debt, so we can now offer services at lower rates" is garbage. Networks are upgraded and that's the largest expense. Once the upgrades are done to where things are now, maybe 80% of traffic is DATA. Your voice is going over data. There is then only maintenance cost and replacement/repair cost to consider. FLOW is making a KILLING off the Jamaican people.

    Now - let's flip the switch. Digicel came and did GREAT stuff! They added competition and caused change. And then - inevitably - they became a FLOW. Who has seen the whole "call tax" popup that you get? I made a call to someone and they didn't answer. Cut off the call right as the voicemail came up. Popup said I spent 0 seconds on the call but had to pay $0.05 for GCT. Well - phone tax of 25% which I thing is STCT or something like that. But really? And when you pay for an "unlimited" plan with them, their "FUP" is rather unfair. NEVER had issues with calls on FLOW.

    So yes. Additional companies bring competition and push change. What we have now is a duopoly and the general public is absolutely content with it.

    Even if the back-end of Caricel is laundered money, the fact that we're dropped back into the duopoly is disheartening. The potential of having another network that would have pushed competition, lowered prices and given people options - that's what is missing. Not condoning money laundering - just lamenting that we're back under "pressa".

    http://www.loopjamaica.com/content/u...ricels-licence

    Your issue (in my view) comes down to less about duopolies, and more to do with a lack of vision & leadership in local firms (and broader society really). Jamaicans routinely quash & dismiss innovation as unneccessary, untenable or unsuited for local application; making do with the medicore as good-enough. A consequent of the general sentiment is people who assimilate to upper management, who also possess such a sentiment. This sentiment translates to the inertia we see in the buildings we build, the solutions we create to "solve" problems, how we think of human development (achievement, sustainable growth, self-actualization) and SO many other things.

    CARICEL is a consequence of this. CARICEL state-of-affairs is god awful at best. Holding a license for PRIME greenfield spectrum in any other geography would have STRICT roll-out targets. I could speak about the myriad questionable/suspicous aspects of the company ad nauseum. It lacks the foresight, expertise and innovation to be worth considering.

    We need to banish mediocrity from our lexicon and yearn for more.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Brandysull View Post
    Your issue (in my view) comes down to less about duopolies, and more to do with a lack of vision & leadership in local firms (and broader society really). Jamaicans routinely quash & dismiss innovation as unneccessary, untenable or unsuited for local application; making do with the medicore as good-enough. A consequent of the general sentiment is people who assimilate to upper management, who also possess such a sentiment. This sentiment translates to the inertia we see in the buildings we build, the solutions we create to "solve" problems, how we think of human development (achievement, sustainable growth, self-actualization) and SO many other things.

    CARICEL is a consequence of this. CARICEL state-of-affairs is god awful at best. Holding a license for PRIME greenfield spectrum in any other geography would have STRICT roll-out targets. I could speak about the myriad questionable/suspicous aspects of the company ad nauseum. It lacks the foresight, expertise and innovation to be worth considering.

    We need to banish mediocrity from our lexicon and yearn for more.
    In summary - yes. Take a look at my sig. I can't remember when I changed it, but this has been my view forever.

    We live in a society where the companies are run almost entirely by the bottom line - drawing on other departments or child companies to make the figures look good to the shareholders. Nobody thinks about letting the shareholders earn what they normally do in order to breathe life into various areas.

    Then the persons that end up in managerial positions may only be qualified on paper. This is the same in everything - government included. You have the off situation where someone with sense gets into a position, but many times they don't have the final say.

    As for these companies - I don't blame them entirely. The government and the regulatory bodies are also to blame. But with most things in Jamaica, everyone involved is looking for some sort of kickback - government included - for the things being done. And this corruption hampers the growth.

    While it would be......jarring? Extreme? I've thought long ago that we needed to get rid of ALL of the persons in government and replace with people who actually are for the country and not their pockets. But - where to find such persons?

    Where telephony, accessible internet and technology in general are concerned - John Public doesn't really care. Whether it's used for porn, FaceBook Live to showcase who not paying rent, streaming by legitimate places or used by gamers - the technological background isn't considered much. The end user is only concerned about their experience, and that being understood as a service provider, how can the experience be made better?

    Even if an entity is all about the money, in the end the clients will go elsewhere if there is either an alternative or a better option. Here in Jamaica we don't have a better option - only an alternative.

    Digicel is using FLOW for their backbone. Unless I'm mistaken and they have fiber going out of the country now. The smaller companies that provided ISP services (dial-up with VSAT back in the days) are all gone out of business. Most persons are now "trying a ting" to do what Dekal was doing before FLOW killed them. Few companies have island-wide coverage - you have those like this: https://www.islandnetjm.com/clients/. And I can tell you from first-hand experience, that even in the corporate setting you have garbage taking place. I literally saw CAT5 running along a chain link fence before.......Not outdoor cable. Not shielded. Not gel-filled. Regular cable strung along a fence.

    Let me put it another way in closing to this reply. I'm not surprised when the average IQ in Jamaica is 71.

    https://new-iq-test.com/jamaica-average-iq.html

    Just because someone has a BSc/MSc/PhD/etc. means nothing to me. ESPECIALLY those who INSIST on you calling them "doctor" - I guess they had the title from birth......Many persons have the ability to pass exams without understanding what they wrote on the paper. Regurgitation.

    We need COMPETENT persons in KEY POSITIONS to OVERSEE and REGULATE what's going on. A personal example I'll give is customs charging me commercial rates for 4x shocks for my vehicle - reason? It's 3 or more so I'm buying to sell back.

    Technology - telephony - and the country as a whole cannot move forward when we have these setbacks.
    Knowing the solution doesn't mean knowing the method. Yet answering correctly and regurgitation are considered "learning" and "knowledge".

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    Quote Originally Posted by khat17 View Post
    In summary - yes. Take a look at my sig. I can't remember when I changed it, but this has been my view forever.

    We live in a society where the companies are run almost entirely by the bottom line - drawing on other departments or child companies to make the figures look good to the shareholders. Nobody thinks about letting the shareholders earn what they normally do in order to breathe life into various areas.

    Then the persons that end up in managerial positions may only be qualified on paper. This is the same in everything - government included. You have the off situation where someone with sense gets into a position, but many times they don't have the final say.

    As for these companies - I don't blame them entirely. The government and the regulatory bodies are also to blame. But with most things in Jamaica, everyone involved is looking for some sort of kickback - government included - for the things being done. And this corruption hampers the growth.

    While it would be......jarring? Extreme? I've thought long ago that we needed to get rid of ALL of the persons in government and replace with people who actually are for the country and not their pockets. But - where to find such persons?

    Where telephony, accessible internet and technology in general are concerned - John Public doesn't really care. Whether it's used for porn, FaceBook Live to showcase who not paying rent, streaming by legitimate places or used by gamers - the technological background isn't considered much. The end user is only concerned about their experience, and that being understood as a service provider, how can the experience be made better?

    Even if an entity is all about the money, in the end the clients will go elsewhere if there is either an alternative or a better option. Here in Jamaica we don't have a better option - only an alternative.

    Digicel is using FLOW for their backbone. Unless I'm mistaken and they have fiber going out of the country now. The smaller companies that provided ISP services (dial-up with VSAT back in the days) are all gone out of business. Most persons are now "trying a ting" to do what Dekal was doing before FLOW killed them. Few companies have island-wide coverage - you have those like this: https://www.islandnetjm.com/clients/. And I can tell you from first-hand experience, that even in the corporate setting you have garbage taking place. I literally saw CAT5 running along a chain link fence before.......Not outdoor cable. Not shielded. Not gel-filled. Regular cable strung along a fence.

    Let me put it another way in closing to this reply. I'm not surprised when the average IQ in Jamaica is 71.

    https://new-iq-test.com/jamaica-average-iq.html

    Just because someone has a BSc/MSc/PhD/etc. means nothing to me. ESPECIALLY those who INSIST on you calling them "doctor" - I guess they had the title from birth......Many persons have the ability to pass exams without understanding what they wrote on the paper. Regurgitation.

    We need COMPETENT persons in KEY POSITIONS to OVERSEE and REGULATE what's going on. A personal example I'll give is customs charging me commercial rates for 4x shocks for my vehicle - reason? It's 3 or more so I'm buying to sell back.

    Technology - telephony - and the country as a whole cannot move forward when we have these setbacks.
    Agreed! Agreed! Agreed! Couldn't have said it any better myself. Such is the lot we ae dealt & barring generational changes, we will never see the promised land.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Brandysull View Post
    Agreed! Agreed! Agreed! Couldn't have said it any better myself. Such is the lot we ae dealt & barring generational changes, we will never see the promised land.
    LOL. I tell you. And the persons in parliament/government are always so elderly......look at the current US presidential candidates? Funny though - some of the current local cabinet members are younger than in previous times. But. Here we are.

    Anyways. Caricel or not - I'd love to see some more competition. I honestly thought that FLOW with their Liberty Global parent would have done some more in the fixed lines (copper or fiber) rollout. The focus seems to be mostly mobile these days.

    I'm even tempted to go with their unlimited plans since my speed tests there are faster than what I get on HFC.
    Knowing the solution doesn't mean knowing the method. Yet answering correctly and regurgitation are considered "learning" and "knowledge".

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